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While I would prefer for Marika to remain in space and continue with another mission... I can see why it's necessary to return back to the home planet (and school), in order to keep many of the other characters in the show.

There is also the matter of her still being enrolled in classes for school as well. And I like the fact that both she regards it as something important to fulfill responsibility wise and that the show does not somehow "gloss this over". Kinda one more teeny thing that makes the series feel a little more "real" to me....

There is also the matter of her still being enrolled in classes for school as well. And I like the fact that both she regards it as something important to fulfill responsibility wise and that the show does not somehow "gloss this over". Kinda one more teeny thing that makes the series feel a little more "real" to me....

Yet, consider the time and effort required to operate as a ship captain. That's a full time job. Marika may have the natural talent, but it's not something to be taken for granted.

People who go through military service -- many post-pone schooling until they leave the military, and take advantage of the benefits, like paid college tuition. I dunno; just a lot of series are getting too rooted to the school environment, where it's actually kind of rare to find one - that isn't.

Also, Misa strongly suggested that Marika drop out to concentrate on pirating, but Marika refused, wanting to juggle both worlds.

It's not like being a pirate is going to go away. This is a lifetime commitment. If she quits school to be a pirate full time then she will have abandoned her education for the rest of her life. That isn't what she wants to do. A high school dropout isn't who she wants to be. Remember Mami telling us how hard Marika worked to do well in school and stay on top of her job and her club activities. Those are things Marika chose to do; part of who she wants to be. Just because something new has come along in her life does not mean she's going to abandon the life she had already chosen. She is still Kato Marika, and she is not going to let being a pirate captain change that.

It's not like being a pirate is going to go away. This is a lifetime commitment. If she quits school to be a pirate full time then she will have abandoned her education for the rest of her life. That isn't what she wants to do. A high school dropout isn't who she wants to be. Remember Mami telling us how hard Marika worked to do well in school and stay on top of her job and her club activities. Those are things Marika chose to do; part of who she wants to be. Just because something new has come along in her life does not mean she's going to abandon the life she had already chosen. She is still Kato Marika, and she is not going to let being a pirate captain change that.

A good Captain needs an education. At least if one follows the Star Trek path to the Captain's chair.

Heavy knowledge in tactics, ship handling, navigation, history, classical literature (it helps for making epic speeches), various game rules (typically chess and poker...both so you can either out think your opponent, or out bluff them), hand to hand combat, gunnery practise, and general engineering and scientific knowledge so you can also get your hands dirty if things break on your ship...or you need to break something on someone else's ship when you happen to be alone. These last skills also help you understand if your Chief Engineer or Science Officer is trying to pull a fast one on you.

Oh and model building. Because every Captain needs a hobby where one can show off their previous ships...either commanded, or one's they've looted in the case of the Privateers.

It's not like being a pirate is going to go away. This is a lifetime commitment. If she quits school to be a pirate full time then she will have abandoned her education for the rest of her life. That isn't what she wants to do. A high school dropout isn't who she wants to be. Remember Mami telling us how hard Marika worked to do well in school and stay on top of her job and her club activities. Those are things Marika chose to do; part of who she wants to be. Just because something new has come along in her life does not mean she's going to abandon the life she had already chosen. She is still Kato Marika, and she is not going to let being a pirate captain change that.

This is what I like about Marika. As much as exciting her inherited job is, nevertheless it's a mature and responsible decision for her to complete her studies, something that's missing in these days.

An educated privateer with common sense has a better chance of victory than her opponent.

A good Captain needs an education. At least if one follows the Star Trek path to the Captain's chair.

Heavy knowledge in tactics, ship handling, navigation, history, classical literature (it helps for making epic speeches), various game rules (typically chess and poker...both so you can either out think your opponent, or out bluff them), hand to hand combat, gunnery practise, and general engineering and scientific knowledge so you can also get your hands dirty if things break on your ship...or you need to break something on someone else's ship when you happen to be alone. These last skills also help you understand if your Chief Engineer or Science Officer is trying to pull a fast one on you.

Oh and model building. Because every Captain needs a hobby where one can show off their previous ships...either commanded, or one's they've looted in the case of the Privateers.

Depends on the Trek and the Captain. Kirk and Picard seem to have become Captain in their late 20s. Kirk was considered a bookworm intellectual at the Academy, even taught some classes to the first years in his last year. When he wasn't chasing skirts that is. Picard was also an acedemic, but reckless until afterwards.

The new film Kirk is slightly different in personality, but even being shown to be a cocky bastard that chases anything with breasts, is shows remarkable intelligence in some fields and very good memory retention. They also promoted him to Captain right out of the Academy...which is highly unusual (and a few years early...though Kirk normally would have been Captain of a smaller ship by then if I recall correctly....just not of something as big and important as the Enterprise)

Marika will need her education in the future of being a Privateer. While a Pirate can get away with not knowing stuff, a Privateer needs to know things in order to survive. Since a Privateer is legal and registered with the government, they need to be able to know what the political history of an area of space is. They need to be able to act both in a professional fashion and in the dramatic over the top fashion (Chiaki is already a master of this). They potentially need to rub elbows with the galaxy's elite and shoud be able to hold a conversation that isn't all "This one time we had pew pew lasers" or "ARRR, WHERE BE THE BOOTY?"

Jenny seems to be the example of someone that can speak to the elite...though she is the elite it seems. She does have a way with words when talking to the dregs ("bakame, over")

A good Captain needs an education. At least if one follows the Star Trek path to the Captain's chair.

Heavy knowledge in tactics, ship handling, navigation, history, classical literature (it helps for making epic speeches), various game rules (typically chess and poker...both so you can either out think your opponent, or out bluff them), hand to hand combat, gunnery practise, and general engineering and scientific knowledge so you can also get your hands dirty if things break on your ship...or you need to break something on someone else's ship when you happen to be alone. These last skills also help you understand if your Chief Engineer or Science Officer is trying to pull a fast one on you.

Oh and model building. Because every Captain needs a hobby where one can show off their previous ships...either commanded, or one's they've looted in the case of the Privateers.

I'd hazard a good captain would need to complete her education before becoming captain... Inheriting not just the ship but the captaincy before she graduated puts everything all out of whack anyway.

You know I still don't quite understand why she couldn't just finish high school then step up and inherit her dads ship and captaincy? Did the crew have a deadline or something?

The way I understood it was that the Letter of Marque had to be held by someone from a specific bloodline, and that person had to perform acts of piracy within a certain time interval or the Letter of Marque would lapse. So the crew was stuck - they had to bring Marika onboard right away or lose their livelihoods.

The Letter of Marque can only be passed to a decendant of the previous Captain and is only good for fifty days without them engaging in legal piracy.

One would assume the rules are designed so they would eventually get rid of all the privateers from that Star System while still respecting the System's Rights within the Galactic Empire. So if your Captain dies without an heir or an heir can't hold the position, the Letter of Marque becomes void and the ship and crew either are forced to do something else that is legal, join the military (I guess that is an option), or become real pirates...the illegal kind, and be hunted down by the Empire.

Though I wonder what they would do if Marika had declined the offer, or she took too long? One assumes based on the urgency that the Letter of Marque cannot be held in Trust until the heir wishes to use it. (Thus the pirate ship and crew would need to stand down until they get a captain to make them legal).

I forget, how long ago was the Letter of Marque issued to Marika's father? Is there anyone in the Sea of Morningstar government that would issue a new one if the current of lapsed?

Can you imagine the soul crushing paperwork, red tap and bureaucracy of getting a lapsed Letter renewed? Judging by the amount of insanity Marika had to go through to get her Letter, it'd probably take an army of lawyers, several platoons of other people running back and forth between agencies, a lobbyist or 3 with well placed connections, and probably more than a few under the table negotiations to make that happen.

Traditionally a government only issues Letter of Marque in times of war to civilians that will privately fund their own warship to supliment the military.

Sea of Morningstar is not at war, and thus shouldn't issue new Letters. The remaining ones in existance are those left from the War some 100 years ago. Meaning that Marika's father and Chiaki's father probably got their Letters from one of their own parents sometime in the not too distant past. 20...25 years ago maybe? We think Chiaki's father isn't all that old and Marika's died of food poisoning. So the few Privateers running about would be special and rare.